Hollow-tile backing for walls



.m J a fi a4 n M n w\ A .v H //////A/////V//// \A. g P flm Q \V j brwmgw rhaam w J. A. STAHR HOLLOW mm: BACKING- FOR WALLS Nov. 30 1926.

Filed April 9; 1926 ill) Patented Nov. 30, 1926.

means U Nil TED ST ATIES ENT ()"F F IC E.

JOHN A. STAHR,OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO BRADLEY FIREPBOOFING PRODUCTS COMPANY, INC., A CGBl- 'OEATION OF NEW JERSEY.

HOLLOW-TILE BACKING FOR WALLS.

Application filed April's,

My invention relates generally to constructions of hollow tiles for usein forming the walls of buildings and more specifically comprises aspecial form of hollow tile'particularly designed to. form an innerbacking for an ordinary wall, the facing of which is composed ofordinary brick, stone or other material. My improved tile isparticularly adapted for use in a backing for walls of this generaldescription in which the backing tiles and the facing brick are bondedtogether at suitable intervals by courses of header bricks, that is tosay, bricks or other elements of the facing wall which extend backbeyond the main inner face of said facing wall and interlock with thecourses of hollow tiles forming the backing, so as to unite these twoportions of the wall structure securely and without substantiallyvarying the unifori'nity of appearance of the outer surface ofthe facingcourses of brick, stone or other tacing'material.

The rimary object of my invention is the production of a tile backing ofthis description which, when assembled in combination with the headercourses, shall form a multiplicity of relatively small, closed air'cells which shall increase the non-heat-conducting orinsulatingqua-lities of said tile backing and at the same time requirethe use of only one standardized form of tile which shall be as light inweight as possible, consistent with the requirements as to strength inresistance to vertical compression, and have certain other minoradvantages which will be hereinafterpointed out in detail.

To this end my invention comprises a tile having; the usual longitudinalvoids or internal passages separated by ribs or partitions, the relativecross sectional areasof said voids and their separating and enclosingribs or partitions being so designed that the ends oi some of said voidswiHbe closed off by the inter-position of the header courses, whileothers willbe closed off by reason of the fact that the ribstorpartitions separating the individualmember'sof the setsin one course ofthe tileswill come-opposite to, and overlapth'e corresponding voids inan adjacent course of the tiles. The best form of tile at'p're'sentknown to me embodyingmy invention, and: the-prea terredtarrangenient:0t. such tiles :as emu 1926. Serial No. 100,808.

backing, are illustrated in the accompanying sheet of drawings in which,

, Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a wall under constructionemploying my invention.

Fig. 2 is an end elevation of another portion of such wall drawn on alarger scale.

Fig. 3 is'a plan view of the construction shown in Fig. 2, parts beingbroken away.

4 is adctail vertical section taken on line H of Figs. 2and 3, and,

Fig. 5 is adetail perspective view of a portion of thetop of one courseof the backing tiles and of the lower portion of a superimposed course,the latter being cut away in section on a vertical plane to show more Nclearly how the ribs of one course cover the ends of the voids in theadjacent course.

Throughout the drawings like reference characters indicate like parts.

1, 1, represent successive courses ct facing brick laid in the usual wayand bonded with mortar or cement 5. Interposed header courses 9,2, offacing brick are formed by laying standard brick crosswise oi thecourses 1, 1, so that the rear half portion of each header course 2,projects out behind the main body of the facing courses. 3, 3, representthe backing; tiles which constitute the main novel feature of myinvention. All of these tiles are of uniform dimensions. Each tile hasat one end a projecting stepped-up portion 13, the length of whichprojection (as shown in this particular embodimentof my invention) is alittle greater 1 than 'halt'the thickness of a header course 2.

Usually this length equals one-halt the thickness of a header brick plusone-half the thickness of the usual layer of mortar used in bondingtogether the tacing brick. Accordingly, when the total over-all lengthof such tile approximately equals one-half the distance between thecenters oi successive header courses of brick and courses of saidtile-are arranged in pairs with their steppedup ends'outermost. as shownin Fig. 1, they will it inbetween the rearwardly projecting'portions ofsuccessive header courses 2.

Also each two' successive courses of tiles having their stepped-up endsabutting "will,

when bonded together, as shown in Fig, 2, form a recess into which "the'rearwardly projecting portion of a course of header brick 2 mayfittofoim a key, bonding the the other at 8 and 10. The voids 7 may beii i made of any desired cross section to se cure the necessarylightness in weight con sistent with leaving sufiicient thickness ofintervening ribs 11. to give the desired or necessary strength. In thedrawings 1 have shown two such voids 7 in each his. but more or lessvoids could be employed if advisable. I preferably, however, employ twosuch voids in each tile arranged as shown in Fig. 3. These voids 7 areseparated by a continuous rib or partition 12 from the rear set of voidsor spaces 8 and 10. The narrower voids 8 of this rear series areseparated one from another by ribs or partitions 9, the thickness ofwhich is slightly greater than the width of the voids 8. The end wallsor partitions 9 are of the same thickness as the intermediate ones 9, 9.The wider voids 10 of this rear series may, for the purpose of securinglightness in weight of the tile, be made of a width slightly less thanthe combined width of two adjacent end walls or ribs 9 and of theintervening layer 5 of mortar or cement.

Preferably the outer faces of each tile 3 which are to be in contactwith layers of mortar are made of slightly irregular form as by moldingdovetail grooves 4 therein, as indicated on one such face in Figs. 1 andThis is for the purpose of creating a firmer bond between the tile andthe mortar. In building a wall in accordance with my invention the tiles3 are laid in reversely arranged courses 3 and 3 the tile of any onecourse, as 3, being staggered with reference to adjacent courses 3", asbest shown in Fig. 4. The result of this is, first, that the ends of thelarge voids 7 in each pair of such tile courses are blocked off orclosed by the header courses 2 of facing brick and by the bonding mortarapplied to the upper and lower surfaces andthe rear ends of said headercourses. Second, that the narrower voids 8 of each rear series of voidsin each course of tile are blocked off or closed by the sli htly thickerribs 9 of each adjacent course'of tiles, as best shown in Fig. 4. Alsothe ends .of all wider voids 10 in each rear series are blocked off orclosed by the slightly greater combined thickness of two end walls orribs 9" and of the intervening layer of mortar 5, also as best shown inFig.

If, for example, the ribs 9, 9 11 and 12 are each one inch thick, thenarrower voids 8 each 'Z ths of an inch in width, and the wider voids 10are each approximately 2 inches in width, the above described resultwill be secured with the use of the minimum amount of material and afull compliance with the most rigid requirements of municipal buildingregulations.

The primary advantage of my invention is the formation of a multiplicityof series of closed air cells in which the confined air will exerciseits well-known function of serving as a non-conductor of heat. Also thisfunction will. be exerted to the highest degree by the greater number ofsmaller voids 8 and 10 forming the rear series, which will be adjacentthe inner surface of the completed wall, and primarily exposed to theheating action of the artificially warmed air in the building interior.Each of these latter series of air cells has a length merely equal tothe over-all length of a single tile 3, and the inner series of aircells 7 will have lengths equal only to the dis tance between twoconsecutive header courses 2 of facing brick. As a result, the trappedair in each of these relatively small hermetically closed cells soonbecomes heated nearly to the temperature of the ad jacent room of thebuilding and thereafter there is little loss of heat by conduction fromthe inner warm surface of the wall to the outer, cooler facing brick inwinter; and, conversely, little conduction from the exterior heatedfacing brick in summer inward through the tile backing to the inte riorof the building. Thus the waste of heatwhich would result if there was aconstant circulation of air throughout the voids in the tile backing, isavoided. At the same time the greater strength resulting from laying thebacking tile in vertical position is conserved, as is also theconvenience in handling resulting from retaining always the verticalposition of the tile, it being more convenient for the masons to graspthem with one hand by inserting the fingers in the upper ends of thevoids without having to lay down the trowel in the other hand. to useboth hands for lifting and placing the tile, as is necessary when theyare laid with the voids extending horizontally. As all these beneficialresults are secured by the use of one standard form of tile which can beproduced by a slight rearrangement of the present standard form ofmolds, and without any appreciable increase in weight of material used,the cost of manufacture is not increased.

Another advantage derived from the above described preferredconstruction results from the fact that each one of the horizontallayers of bonding mortar 51 between any two adjacent courses of tile isblocked off at the front either by a course of header brick 2 or offacing brick 1, as shown in Fig. 2, and conversely that each horizontallayer of mortar between successive courses of header brick and facingbrick is blocked off at the rear by all, or a portion, of a course oftiles. This tends to prevent the transmission of a moisture through themortar which is much more porous than the hard, burnt tile, from eithersurface of the wall structure to the other. This is particularlyadvantageous in reducing the possibility of the moisture deposited uponthe exterior of the building wall creeping through to the inner surfaceof the wall and discoloring or decomposing the plaster or otherornamental finish of the interior wall surface, visible to the occupantsof the rooms in the building.

Various modifications might be made in the dimensions and arrangement ofribs and voids above described as the preferred form of my inventionwithout departing from the underlying principle thereof, so long as thefeature of using the ribs of one course of tiles to substantially blockoff and close the ends of the voids in the adjacent course or courses,is retained.

Having described my invention, 1 claim:

1. A tile for use in backing walls of buildings. which tile has aplurality of voids of a uniform width separated by ribs of slightlygreater thickness, whereby, when set one upon another in evenlystaggered courses, the ribs of each tile close the adjacent ends of thevoids in the tiles of the next course.

2. A tile for use in backing walls of buildings, which tile has aplurality of voids of uniform width separated and enclosed by a seriesof ribs of uniform thickness, and a central void of approximately doublethe width of that of the first mentioned ones, whereby, when set oneupon another in evenly staggered courses, the ribs between said voids inone course close the adjacent ends of the narrower voids in the nextcourse, and the end ribs of adjacent tiles in one course and theintervening layer of bonding material close the adjacent ends of thewider voids in the next upper and lower courses.

3. A tile for use in forming a backing to be tied to a wall facing bysuitable header courses in said wall facing, which tile has a stepped-upportion at one end adapted to extend along the back of such a headercourse, and a series of longitudinal voids of uniform width separated byribs of a thickness at least equal to said width all terminating in saidstepped-up portion, whereby, when a plurality of said tiles are placedin evenly staggered courses behind said wall facing with their saidstepped-up portions back of said header courses and bonded thereto, theribs in each tile will close the adjacent ends of the voids in the nexttile and form a continuous air cell backing for said wall located in therear of said header courses.

4. A tile such as described in claim 3 the shorter section of which alsocontains longitudinal voids, the ends of which voids are closed by saidheader courses.

5. A tile such as described in claim 3 in which the length of thestepped-up portion is approximately equal to half the thickness of saidheader course, whereby successive courses of said tiles can be arrangedwith their stepped-up ends abutting to form recesses for the receptionof a header course of the facing brick.

6. A tile such as described in claim 3 which also has a central voidterminating in said stepped-up portion of a width approximate ly equalto the combined thickness of two ribs and an intervening layer ofmortar, whereby the adjacent outer ribs of each two tiles and theintervening layer of mortar, in one course, will close the end of saidcentral void in a tile of the next course.

7 A wall for buildings having a facing of solid bricks and a backing ofhollow tiles bonded thereto, the rear portions of said tiles having amultiplicity of closed air cells uniformly distributed throughout avertical plane, said cells being formed by vertically arranged voids inthe tiles of each course, which voids are closed at their ends by thepartitions forming similar voids in the tiles of an adjacent course.

8. A structure such as defined in claim 7 in which the bonding of thetiles to the wall facing is effected by spaced apart header courses ofbrick interlocking with both, and in which said air cells extendcontinuously to the rear of all said header courses.

JOHN A. STAHR.

